Graphic Design History09

Medicine during World War 2

2009-12-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

There were a lot of medicines that were used more during World War 2. A few of these included sulfanilamide, penicillin and morphine.

Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk, a German Biochemist discovered this 1932 while researching antibacterial chemicals. It was first used in 1935. During World War 2 everyone carried sulfanilamide to control bacterial infections. This decreased the mortality rate by almost 60%.

Penicillin, discovered by Scottish bacterialist Sir Alexander Fleming, also became widely used during World War 2. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer discovered a production technique that was able to produce penicillin a lot quicker. They provided 90 percent of the penicillin used in Normandy on D-day.

Morphine, derived from the opium poppy plant, was used as a pain killer during World War 2. The pharmaceutical company Squibb discovered a way for medics to use morphine on injured soldiers on the front line. The morphine was put in a toothpaste tube so it was easily carried.

Shirley Temple

2009-12-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

Shirly Temple was the most famous child actress in the 1930's. When she was born, her mother would sing Shirley to sleep, surrounding her with music early on. She then was exposed to dance at age three; it was at one of her dance classes that she was discovered. She first appeared in Baby Burlesks, a movie that included spoofs about other famous movies. This curly haired girl became popular at age five when she had a role in Stand Up and Cheer. That same year she was also seen in Little Miss Marker, Baby Take a Bow and Bright Eyes. Bright Eyes is the movie in which she sang her famous song "On the Good Ship Lollipop." Shirley Temple became very well known in the 1930's as a cute, curly haired girl, and was adored by many.

Giovanni Arnolfini and his bride.

2009-12-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Jan Van Eyck was a famous painter in the 1400's. He painted 'Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride' 1434, in London. Van Eyck included many underlying interpretations. The first unusual depiction is that normally when you get married you shake with your right. Yet Giovanni is shaking with his left. If you shake with your left that will prevent gold-diggers and plus he has it documented with the picture. I guess shaking with your left hand is ideal to signing a prenuptial today.

I know I'm getting pretty detailed, yet it's engaging the audience. The bride is fashionable, looks pregnant yet not, and she is wearing such a dress that shouldn't be a maid. Giovanni is close to the window which is symbolic f0r the bread carrier (provider). His wife is close to the bed which could could mean that she is the baby maker and will care for it.

We know it's a wedding because their shoes are off and that is what they did in church. The burning candle means that they are in the presence of God. The timber ceiling defines purity, and the dog symbolizes obedience and faithful. Finally, the mirror could be the eye of God and in the reflection is Van Eyck and the priest.

Cross Inscribed Carpet Page - Lindisfarne Gospels

2009-12-12T06:45:00.000-08:00

Going back in time around 704 in Early Medieval Europe the Lindisfarne Gospel was created with several pages. This page 'Cross Inscribed Carpet Page' borrowed the style from the Book of Durrow to the next level. It has illuminated manuscripts with complex shapes. Tons of time must have been spent on this. Mythical creatures embedded (hidden) through the designs and combines the creatures if you look really close.

Eye Magazine 50

2009-12-12T05:15:00.000-08:00

Eye magazine talked about the ideology of type. In 1540 Claude Garamond was hired to create his standardized typeface that represented France in away and was used for all the business papers. Garamond became the first to basically create a trade mark for himself with his typeface.

Personally, I enjoy Garamond type. It is unique how it's not made up of geometric shapes. I made templates of Garamond a year or two ago and each letter appears to be hand drawn b/c there really aren't that many strait lines. What a pain in the butt to cut out.

Anyways, years later the New Typography took over. It consisted a asymmetry and san serifs. Then when Hitler took over in 1933 in Germany and the Nazi gov't brought back the bold and space filling blackletters. They Nazis said it was un-German, yet years later they brought back the New Typeface. Around that same time printers were using large slab serifs (big footprints) on sturdy wood for display letters for the bill and large posters. Slab serifs were the type on wanted posters that we still see today. The new typefaces symbolized a new way of life (at the time) clearly by American skyscrapers.

In 1919 News Gothics (large screaming type on wood) was used to signal a large story such as the mind-boggling tabloids. News Gothic in a few words 'signal the big story.' In the 20's Paul Renner's Futura came by storm with the combination styles of the Renaissance and Bauhaus. Futura was unique with its variety of strokes from thick to thin and different stroke weights that the public had to soak in.

The Nazi's abandoned the Gothic type because the Nazis found out or thought it derived from the jews.

The other styles that later appeared were influenced by the harsh economic problems caused by WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and more. Artist were breaking the modern rules of type by taking it further. Art Nouveau and Postmodern styles a ambushed modernism. Postmodernist characterized their work as psychedelic and colorful. Nudity, drugs and rock-and-roll flourished. People were rebellious all over the place. This new attitude was new to the previous 'Leave it to Beaver' and 'The Brady Bunch' era.

Finally, the people leaned more towards type that represented speed.

Von Glitchka

2009-12-12T05:05:00.000-08:00

Von Glitschka

• Recognizing his talents in drawing at the age of 5 after winning an art

contest, Von Glitschka knew he would someday make a career of his love

of creativity. Over the years he would try different styles of art and add his

own twist to the contemporary world of art. Thus, Glitschka established his

own mark in the industry as an “Illustrative Designer”, a phrase he coined

for his unique niche.

• Von Glitschka grew up greatly inspired by his mother who engaged him in

painting and crafts at a very young age and encouraged him to express his

originality through his work. Other pieces of inspiration stemmed from his

personal interest in Japanese cartoons and old record covers by Jim Flora. But his

love for art did not stop at home. Glitschka was not shy to show off his talents in

school as he took every opportunity he could to tie art into his projects or show

off for his friends.

• Glitschka went on to graduate from The Seattle Art Institute in 1986. From

there he directed his artistic abilities towards the field of Graphic Design in

which he spent the first ten years of his career working for in-house

departments and decent sized creative agencies. Now days, the designer

spends his time creating for major publications and advertising agencies

from his studio in Salem, Oregon. Over the 23 years that Glitschka has

worked in communication arts he has been titled Senior Designer and Art

Director and has seen success with his award winning projects.

• In 2002, Von opened Glitschka Studios, a creative

agency that includes popular clientele such as General

Motors, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Major League

Baseball, Merck, Microsoft, Pepsi, Virgin Atlantic,

Hasbro, Bandai Toys, Edison Power, Allstate Insurance

and Upper Deck.

• Among his many commitments, Von teaches a digital

illustration class at a local college and created a

resource site called illustrationclass.com for students and

designers to learn or reference new techniques.

Here are some of his web sites. The illustration school site is my favorite cause he offers great tutorials, vectors, and downloads:

http://www.illustrationclass.com/?page_id=3

http://www.vonglitschka.com/

http://www.federalbureauofillustration.com

Star Wars, 1977

2009-12-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

Star Wars is an epic space opera franchise conceived by George Lucas. The film was originally released on May 25, 1977 by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals. As of 2008, the overall box office revenue generated by the six Star Wars films has totaled approx. $4.3 billion, making it the third highest grossing film series, behind James bond and Harry Potter films.

The Star Wars film series has spawned other media including books, television series, video games, and comic books. These supplements to film trilogies comprise the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and have resulted in significant development of the series' fictional universe

The setting of the events dipicted in Star Wars media take place in a fictional galaxy. Many species of alien creatures are often depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are generally built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a Galactic Republic, later reorganized as the Galactic Empire.

Awards

IV: A New Hope

Art Direction- Set Direction

Costume Design

Film Editing

Music (original Score)

Sound (Mixing)

Visual Effects

Box Office Performance

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope-$430,998,007

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back-$290,475,067

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi-$309,306,177

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace-$431,088,301

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones-$310,676,740

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith-$380,270,577

Star Wars: The Clone Wars-$35,161,544

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars

Lauren Bray

Op Art

2009-12-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Op art "Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing." Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping.

Op art is derived from the constructivist practices of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius, stressed the relationship of form and function within a framework of analysis and rationality. Students there were taught to focus on the overall design, in order to present unified works.

The term first appeared in print in Time Magazine in October 1964, though works which might now be described as "op art" had been produced for several years previously.

Op Art Works

Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground relationship that causes the two planes to be in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition. It is created in two primary ways. The first, and best method, is the creation of effects through the use of pattern and line. Often these paintings are the black and white, or otherwise grisaille. Second, is the lines create after-images of certain colors due to how the retina recieves and processes light.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op_art

Lauren Bray

Mary Quant: Fashion Designer

2009-12-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

Mary Quant was one of the most famous fashion designers of the 1960s; her best-known creation was the mini-skirt.
Quant opened the London boutique, Bazaar, in 1955. Her first best-sellers were small white plastic collars to brighten up black dresses or sweaters. These sold for the equivalent of 30 cents each. Blackstretch stockings were also a popular item.
Quant attempted to find new and interesting items for the shop, but as a buyer, she wasn't satisfied with the range of clothes available to her. And so she decided to design and manufacture her own.
Some of her early experimental designs included balloon style dresses and knickerbockers. Large spots and checks were mixed. She designed the first range of coordinates in England with items such as sleeveless dresses featuring unusual color combinations.
By 1963 she was exporting her fashions to the U.S.-the focus was on "mix and match" separates, coats, boots, stockings and accessories and began mass-producing. The Mary Quant brand was born.
In 1964, the first mini-skirts arrived in New York. By now, the "mod look" was taking hold worldwide. Mary Quant became the major fashion force outside of Paris, she was THE designer of the mid-60s. Besides the mini-skirt, Quant is often credited with creating the colored and patterned tights that were worn with the mini.
Among her numerous designs were vinyl boots, dresses with strong colors and striking geometric designs, the extremely short micro-mini, plastic raincoats, white, knee-high, lace-up boots, tight, skinny sweaters in stripes and bold checks.
She also said that “Suddenly every girl with a hope of getting away with it is aiming to look not only under voting age, but under the age of consent.”
In the late 60s, Quant launched the short-lived fad of hot pants, which was her last big fashion design. In the 1970s and ‘80s, she concentrated on household goods and makeup, but she will always be known for her innovative, designing style that helped define the 1960s.

1939: "The Greatest Year in Film History"

2009-12-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

Film historians and movie buffs often look back on 1939 as "the greatest year in film history". This particular year saw the release of an unusually large number of exceptional movies, many of which have been honored as all-time classics.

The most popular of them include the following:

Gone with the Wind:It is a stunning Civil War panoramic story of the transformed lives of leading families as the Southern aristocracy crumbles and the South is defeated. From the stories of the lives of a number of memorable characters including a pampered, spoiled, headstrong beautiful young woman Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), a dashing cavalier Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a loyal black slave Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett's saintly cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), and the ineffectual character of Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), the story is told through great spectacle, romance, despair, conflict and travail. With a terrific, lyrical musical score by one of the greatest film composers of all time, Max Steiner.

The Wizard of Oz:

A farm girl Dorothy (Judy Garland) from Kansas (in sepia-tone) is transported with her dog Toto in a twister to the magical fantasy land of Oz (in Technicolor). There she meets delightfully colorful characters including the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) and three companions - the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), the Tin Man (Jack Haley), and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr). With them she sets off on the yellow brick road to seek the Wizard's (Frank Morgan) help to get home. The Wizard grants all of their wishes when they subdue the Witch. In the land of Oz, she discovers that things aren't always better somewhere else. With the well-known theme song, "Over the Rainbow."

Of Mice and Men:

A bittersweet, tragic story of two ranch hands traveling together in California's Salinas Valley. Two migrant field workers, Lenny (Lon Chaney, Jr.) a large, physically-strong but dim-witted individual with a great passion for soft furry things, and George (Burgess Meredith), Lenny's protector, only want to live peacefully on their own small ranch. But Lenny's innocence, feeble-mindedness, his clumsy misuse of his physical strength, and finally a brutal set of circumstances kills their dream.

Mr Smith Goes to Washington:

One of Frank Capra's time-honored classic comedy/dramas about the triumph of the ordinary man over the corrupt political elite, restoring faith in democracy. An idealistic, naive Boy Rangers leader Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is drafted by his state's governor to the Senate in Washington as a freshman senator to complete the remaining term of a dead Senator. The corrupt "political machine," led by his state's senior Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains) believes he will easily be controllable, but when Jefferson discovers the land-scam plans of his supporters, he becomes stubbornly determined to not forsake his dreams and to do what's right against the corrupt, greedy forces running his state. With the support of his secretary Saunders (Jean Arthur), he delivers a powerful, rousing and passionate filibuster on the Senate floor in the final climactic moments

The Hunchback of Notre Dame:

A hideously deformed, grotesque, outcast hunchback Quasimodo (Charles Laughton) lives as the bell-ringer in the towers of Notre Dame's Cathedral. The hunchback is scorned by an angry mob one day, but is shown pity and kindness by a beautiful Gypsy dancer girl, Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara). He develops a tragic fondness for the girl, and rescues her from being hanged in the public square for being a witch, taking her back into the bell tower and claiming sanctuary.

The Nineteenth Amendment & Women's Rights

2009-12-02T13:44:00.000-08:00

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each state and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920.

It states that:

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

The fight for women's suffrage represents one of the most main struggles of women, because denying them representation in government gave a very clear message that they were second class citizens. Women's suffrage has become a very popular compaign over the past 250 years. However, it did take a very long time to work its way up the list to become a dominant issue.

In the First World War large numbers of women started becoming laborers. They discovered that their work outside the home was now valued. Meanwhile, large numbers of men were killed and wounded in battle.

In the years between the wars, women continued to fight discrimination and opposition to women's rights.

The Second World War was extremely liberating for women, since most working-age men were away from their homes and jobs. Large numbers of women contributed to life aside from homemaking as a result of the educational and employment opportunities that opened to them. The popular icon Rosie the Riveter became a symbol for a generation of working women!

The Beatles

2009-11-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. They became the most successful and most critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. The group consisted of John Lennon (guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals). There genres ranged from folk rock to psychedelic pop to also incorporating classical rock into their music. The Beatles built their reputation in Liverpool and Hamburg clubs all over a 3yr period from 1960 in the UK.

The Beatles achieved UK mainstream success in late 1963 with their first single "Love Me Do" and gained popularity through the UK and internationally. They toured until 1966, then went back into the studio where they then broke up in 1970. Each then found success in an independent musical career. McCartney and Starr remained active; Lennon was shot and killed in 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in 2001.

The bands earliest influences include Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, whose songs they covered more than often in their shows. Other influences include Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbinson, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, The Byrds and The Beach Boys.

Some Awards the Beatles recieved were the song Let it Be won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. They have also received seven Grammy Awards and 15 Ivor Novello Awards. They have also been awarded 6 diamond albums, as well as 24 multi-platinum ablums, 39 platinum ablums and 45 gold albums in the United States. The Beatles were also into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

Lauren Bray

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles#Legacy

I Love Lucy, 1951

2009-11-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

I Love Lucy is an American Sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The black and white episodes ran from October 15, 1951 to April 1, 1960 on CBS. The I Love Lucy show was the most watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the ratings. The Andy Griffin Show and Seinfeld was matched with the I Love Lucy Show. The I Love Lucy Show won five Emmy Awards and recieved numerous nominations.

The set was placed in New York City, I Love Lucy centers on Lucy Ricardo(Lucille Ball) and her singer husband Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), along with their friends/landlord Fred Mertz (William Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance). Lucy's character is someone naive and ambitious, with an overactive imagination and a knack for getting herself into trouble. She is primarily obsessed with joining her husband in show business. Lucy's husband, is an upcoming Cuban American singer and bandleader. He is very patient, but when he is exasperated, he often reverts to Spanish and even literally spanked Lucy for her mischief on one occasion.

One memorable episode called, "Lucy Does a TV Commerical": Lucy is hired to act as the "Vitameatavegamin girl" in a TV commerical, to promote a health tonic contains healthy amounts of vitamins, meats, vegetables, mineralsl- an a less than healthy dose of 23% alcohol. Lucy becomes progressively drunker throughout the rehearsal, but gamely keeps on pitching the product, eventually leading to completely flubbed live performance for "this stuff".

Some of its Emmy awards are for best actress( Lucille Ball), Most outstanding comedian, Best situation Comedy.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Lucy

http://www.tvland.com/shows/lucy/

Lauren Bray

Dick Tracy

2009-10-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

Dick Tracy is a long-running comic strip featuring a popular and familiar character in American pop culture. Dick Tracy is a hard-hitting, fast shooting, and supremely intelligent police detective who has matched his wits with variety of colorful villains, many based on real-life gangsters. This comic strip was created by cartoonist Chester Gould, the Dick Tracy strip made deput apperance on October 4, 1931-1977. Chester introduced the violent comic strips which reflected the violence of 1930s in Chicago. He kept up with and studied the best fighting/detective techniques, forensic science, advanced gadgetry.

The history of Dick Tracy is that he proposed to a girl named Tess Trueheart. After returning home , they walked in on the middle of a robbery. Interrupted they shoot Tess' father Emil and kidnaps Tess. Dick wants justice done, so he swiftly in the police force, and nine days later was appointed to the plainsclothes detective division. After rescuing Tess, he continues with his new career.

The strip's villain are arguably the strongest appeal to the story. Gould most favor villain is Flattop Jones, a freelance hitman with a large head as flat as an aircraft carriar's flight deck. Flattop was hired to murder Tracy, and he came within hair's breadth of accomplishing that before deciding to first blackmail his employers for more money. This proved to be a fatal mistake since it gave Tracy time to signal for help, and he eventually defeated his assassin in a spectacular fight scene even as the police were storming the hideout. When Flattop was eventually killed, fans went into morning.

In later years, Dick Tracy made film debut in 1937, a Republic Pictures movie serial starring

Ralph Byrd.

Lauren Bray

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Tracy

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/d/diktracy.htm

Babe Ruth, "The Bambino"

2009-10-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

George Herman Ruth, Jr. formally known as "Babe" Ruth was an American Major League baseball player from 1914-1935. He started as a starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and then was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, in which he converted to a full-time right fielder. He then became one the league's most prolific hitters. Babe Ruth won seven pennants and four world series titles during his tenure with the New York Yankees.

Ruth since become regarded as one of the greatest sports heros in American Culture. He has been named the greatest baseball player in the history in various surveys and rankings, and his home run hitting prowess and charismatic personality made him a larger than life figure in the roaring twenties. Ruth was the first person to hit 60 home runs in one season(1927), setting the season record which stood until broken by Roger Maris in 1961. Ruth's lifetime total of 714 home runs at his retirement in 1935. Ruth also hit for average: his .342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history, and in one season he hit .393, a Yankee record. His .690 career slugging percentage and 1.164 career on-base plus slugging remain major league records.

In 1998, The Sporting News ranked Ruth number one on the list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players." In 1999, baseball fans named Ruth to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball and in 1993, he was reported to be tied with Muhammad Ali as the most recognized althletes, out 1000, in America.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth

Lauren Bray

Führermuseum

2009-10-21T13:02:00.000-07:00

Adolf Hitler wanted to create a museum in the Austrian city of Linz where a display of art plundered or purchased by the Nazi party during WWII. The museum would be designed by Albert Speer and would include a "monumental" theatre, an opera house and of course the Adolf Hitler Hotel. This would all be surrounded by huge boulevards and a parade ground. There would also be a library that would have around 250,000 books (all of which were approved by Hitler, because if not they would just burn them).

Hitler hid the paintings during the war in his personal office buildings and deposits in upper Austria, when the threat of bombings were getting closer to where the pieces were kept they were moved into the salt mines of Altaussee to protect them.

After the war, the American Art Looting Investigation Unit or ALIU made reports about the Nazi plundering and consolidated all the reports into 4 detailed ones which were then used to return the art to its rightful owners. Stalin used this as an opportunity to stock his Soviet museums and create a museum that would be considered one of the best along with those of Britain.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Führermuseum

My tower is BIGGER than your tower

2009-10-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

Tatlin’s Tower or The Monument to the Third International

Designed by Vladimir Tatlin who was an architect during the Russian Constructivist movement. He envisioned a tower bigger than the Eiffel Tower in Paris and it would have many moving parts. The purpose was to "combine a machine aesthetic with dynamic components celebrating technology." It would resemble a twin helix but he partitioned the tower into three separate levels. The first at the base of the tower would rotate very slowly and do a full rotation once a year, the second would rotate once a month and the top would complete its rotation every day. The tower was to be created out of industrial materials; iron, glass, steel, all of these things helped with the modern thinking at the time he gave careful thought to the materials, the shape, and the functionality.

sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatlin's_Tower

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_constructivism

The Red Scare

2009-10-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

The end of the fighting in Europe did not bring peace and security to the United States. Shortly after the end of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Red Scare began in the United States.
The nation was wrapped up in the fear of communists, socialists, anarchists, and other rebels. Innocent people were jailed for expressing their views, freedoms were ignored, and many Americans feared that a communist revolution was in sight. This revolution suggested that the working class would overthrow the middle class.
Both the federal and state governments reacted to that fear by attacking potential communist threats. And they used acts passed during the war to prosecute suspected communists. Then, in the early 1920s, the fear left just as quickly as it had begun, and the Red Scare was over.

Piet Mondrain

2009-10-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Mondrian was born in the Netherlands and was introduced to art from a very early age. His father was a qualified drawing teacher; Piet often painted and drew along the river. He began his career as an elementary school teacher, but while teaching he also painted. Most of his work from this period was naturalistic or impressionistic, consisting largely of landscapes, pastoral images, windmills, fields, and rivers.

Various artistic movements had a lot of influence over Mondrain, including pointillism and fauvism. He eventually began using a palette consisting almost entirely of red, yellow and blue.

The earliest paintings that show a feeling of the abstraction to come are a series representing scenes of trees and houses with reflections in still water. However, these paintings are still rooted in nature, compared to his further abstractions.

We still find Mondrain-influenced work in some of the most uncommon places....

Pablo Picasso

2009-10-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

Pablo Picasso, born in Spain, seemed to be a child prodigy.
Museo de Picasso in Barcelona is devoted primarily to his early works- I've visited this museum before. His early works seem to be very disturbing and gruesome.

Around 1904, Picasso's palette brightened his subjects became things like circus people and clowns.

He was influenced a lot by Matisse.

Cubism is essentially the fragmenting of three-dimensional forms into flat areas of pattern and color, overlapping and intertwining so that shapes and parts of the human anatomy are seen from the front and back at the same time. -www.artchive.com

Sliding into the Great Depression

2009-10-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. This crash was not a one-day affair. And it was a long-lasting economic depression for the United States as well as the rest of the world. The stock market collapse continued for nearly a month.

The decade that led up to the crash, was a time of wealth and surplus, and many believed that the market could maintain high price levels.

date	change	% change	close
October 28, 1929	-38.33	-12.82	260.64
October 29, 1929	-30.57	-11.73	230.07

-Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com.

"Anyone who bought stocks in mid-1929 and held onto them saw most of his or her adult life pass by before getting back to even" -Richard Salsman.

The 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression are together know to be the biggest financial crisis of the 20th century!

Coco Chanel

2009-10-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

Chanel No. 5 was created in 1921 for a woman named Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, by Ernest Beaux. He used blends of jasmine and rose with a base of sandalwood. Chanel believed women should wear perfume wherever they hoped to be kissed. Today Chanel No.5 sells a bottle every 30 seconds.

No. 5 was chosen to be launched out of a series of 10 Chanel perfumes made by Beaux.
Chanel was known to have said that "Joy was for women who wanted to put their petty morals on display [by wearing the world's costliest perfume]", about this perfume created just for her!

Hair during the Cloche Era

2009-10-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hairstyles of the 1920's and the era of the Cloche Hat

By 1923 the bob, a pageboy style with some length was seen everywhere amid enlightened women. About 1924 the razor cut shingle style was introduced and the most clear cut silhouette of the year is the dome shaped rounded crown with a much reduced brim.

From the mid twenties styled, shaped to the head cuts, which combined various forms of waving from the Marcel wave to finger waving, became a norm. All of these new cuts enabled smaller closer fitting headwear like the cloche to be worn as the shaped hair conformed to the skull’s contour.

Eton Crop - The most extreme form of hairstyle was the Eton Crop circa 1927 to 1928 and the hair could have Brylcreem brilliantine to increase the skull like appearance of the hair style. Shiny black hair was the best form of this fashion. Josephine Baker wore this style of slick, greased hair to great effect.

By 1927 hair was softening from straight to wavy and by 1928 neckline nape hair began to be grown and thus softening the look of some women. Likewise the way the brim was worn gave a new meaning to the cloche style. The forehead and hairline was exposed as either they were cut higher, or the front brim was lifted back on one side following the asymmetric lines of skirts which dipped and waved dithering from month to month as the hemline wavered with indecisiveness.

By the late twenties women suddenly wanted to break free of the cloche and show their hair to the world. The point that they could have shorn hair had been made, now the new point to make was that they were free to choose to be ultra feminine whilst having more rights formerly once an attribution of the male gender only.

The Iconic Cloche Hat's of the 1920's

2009-10-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

The Iconic Cloche Hats of the 1920's

The cloche hat was not confined to the 1920s as is often first thought.

It was fashionable from 1908 to 1933 was one of the most extreme forms of millinery ever, with an appearance that resembled a helmet. It was the iconic hat of the twenties decade and will ever be associated with the flappers of the era. It was responsible for the period stance we associate with the era. To wear one correctly the hat had to be all but pulled over the eyes, making the wearer have to lift up the head, whilst peering snootily down the nose.

Cloche hats had a basic bell contour with bulbous crowns which if correctly designed could add inches to the height of the wearer helping to foster the haughty look, so redolent of the cloche in our mind’s eye.

Art Deco influence can be seen in the zigzag seaming and construction lines of many cloche hats. Art Deco appliqué was a popular embellishment. Cloches existed in many forms including one with a beret like top.

This harsh style was made more acceptable by the use of make up. Make up became the epitome of sophisticated chic and self-assurance. When a woman publicly applied make up from a glamorous compact when in a restaurant or dance hall, she was exhibiting the new symbol of womanly grace and refinement.

Never before had women abandoned the softness that came with possession of feminine tresses and its effect on physical appearance. Now the effect was for a different effect, one that said look at me I am a new woman unhampered by old ideas and I embrace the new. Make up instead was used to define the face in the modern style making it a specific and recognizable new look of the new women.

Blush was not considered quite proper so was used very sparingly. Those that overdid the rouge, were frowned upon for their poor skill at application, but luscious ox-blood red enhanced lips were a must for the woman of the moment.

SB - better late than never i suppose

Flappers, 1920s

2009-09-30T17:50:00.001-07:00

Flappers in the 1920's were referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed hair, and listened to jazz music, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. They were seen smoking, drinking, wearing makeup, treating sex in a casual behavior, driving automobiles, and voted. If she took risks and was giddy, she was a flapper.

The female wore their hair loosely on top of her head and wore a straight skirt with a high collar shirt. She was feminine but broke through several gender barriers for the attire allowed her to play golf, roller skating, and any other sports.

When WWI started, many young men were being used for cannon fodder for an older generation's ideals and mistakes. The attrition rate in the trenches left few with hope that they would survive long enough to return home. They found themselves inflicted with an " eat-drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-we-die spirit. They raised them and faced with the reality of death, many searched (and found) extreme life experiences before they entered the battlefield.

When the war was over, many survivors went home and tried to return to normalcy.

The women then went into the workforce. They were anxious to get back to routine after the war. The women did not date, they waited til the proper man paid her interest, with teh intentions of marriage. But many young men died in the war, leaving the women without possible suitors. The women were not going to waste time but they were going to enjoy life.

The flapper image included shocking changes in clothing and hair. Articles of clothing were trimmed down and lightened in order to make movement easier. Women also tightly wound their chest with strips of cloth in order to flatten it. The clothes were also dropped to the hipline. She also wore stockings in which they rolled over a garter belt. Skirts fell just below the knee and hair was cut into a "bob" and the hair was slicked down and had a curl on both sides of the face.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm

Lauren Bray

2009-09-28T18:40:00.001-07:00

The First Christmas Card

2009-09-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

During the middle ages, it is thought to be that people carved religious themes out of wood as the first Christmas prints to give to people, but it was not until the Victorian era in London, England that the first commercial Christmas card was produced. John Callcott Horsley designed this card for his friend Sir Henry Cole to give out to his friends. There were 1,000 of them produced and put out for sale as well. The following years people followed the idea and made their own cards. Charles Goodall took it farther and created the first company that produced these cards causing the Christmas card to grow in popularity.

Today nobody thinks twice about giving out cards for Christmas, and companies like Hallmark (one of the biggest card industries) have made it easy for people to find a Christmas card that they like. If not, people can even create their own cards to send out with the push of a button. The card industry has boomed since the first Christmas card to the point that cards seem like an everyday part of life.

J.M Barrie, (May 9 1860-June 19 1937)

2009-09-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

Sir James Matthew Barrie (J.M. Berrie), was a Scottish author and dramatist. He

is best known for creating Peter Pan, which is a story about a boy who refused to grow up. J. M Berrie was also credited for popularising the name Wendy, which was a very uncommon name before he gave it to the heroine of Peter Pan.

Berrie really wanted to pursue a career as an author, but his family wished he would have a career in ministry. He went off to the University of Edinburg, and he wrote drama reviews for the local news paper there. Meanwhile, his attention turned increasingly to works for theatre, beginning with a biography about Richard Savage (which was performed only once). The first appearance of his best know hit Peter Pan came in The Little White Bird which was serialised in the in U.S. The first stage performance of Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldnt Grow Up, was on December 27, 1904. As it has been performed may times before, it was finally adapted into feature films, musicals and more.

Berrie had many successes after Peter Pan, some other plays such as Mary Rose, What Every Woman Knows, and The Boy David.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Barrie

http://www.biography.com/articles/J.M.-Barrie-9200058

Lauren Bray

Wright Bros, 1903

2009-09-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first two Americans who are generally credited with inventing and building the world's first sucessful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903. Two years later, they developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft.

This development of the airplane, was then a breakthrough invention of the three axis control, which enabled them to control/steer the aircraft effectively. As the Wright Bros. gained knowledge of basic machanical skills through working on bicycles, motors and printing press. They believed that an unstable vehicle like flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice. For many of years, they conducted extensive tests to develop their skills as pilots.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers

http://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm

Lauren Bray

First Journal: Freedom of Press Trial of 1735

2009-09-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

Even before the first newspaper the United States had laws restricting freedom of press. Publishers had to have permission to publish a paper before they could; the content had to follow certain rules. Although the United States had these laws, U.S. publishers had a much easier time publishing what they wanted to and speaking their minds than the British publishers. The British government tried to push licensing, taxes and the seditious libel law on to United States laws without success, at least until John Peter Zenger.

In the 1774, Zenger printed an article in the New York Weekly Journal criticizing colonial governor William Cosby. Cosby pressed charges against Zenger, leading the the Freedom of Press Trial of 1735. Zenger was guilty under the British seditious libel law, which is a law against any government criticism, but despite this, Zenger was innocent. A jury nullification took place in which the jury decided that Zenger was innocent because he should not be imprisoned for any criticism of the goverment that was true. Zenger's vertict was huge, but did not get rid of the seditious libel law. There has been no other known case in which publishers or printers got away with violating the sedition law. Publishers and printers today still need to watch what they write or print, especially if it deals with the government.

GCascella

Source: Mass Media Law by Don R. Pember and Clay Calvert

Journal One Entry:

2009-09-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

AIGA " Voice " Animation:

In this archive, the designer uses the type Futura and the letterforms

of the word "Voice" to make a design. I think the designers not only used

the word "Voice" but looked at the anatomy of each of the letterforms to

create a piece. I think its a different way of expressing the piece. I believe

if the designers used any other typeface, the pieces wouldn't be as strong.

They really thought about the anatomy of each letter. Also, having a thin

stroke rather a thick stroke of lettering, gives the piece a clean pure look

rather than a bold look which is easier on the eye.

Lauren Bray

Boston Tea Party, 1773

2009-09-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

The Boston Tea Party of 1773 arose from two issues: financial problems of the British East India Company and an ongoing dispute about the extent of the Parliment's authority.

The Tea Party was a protest between the Boston colonist and the colony of Massachusetts. On this day, the officials refused to return the ship loads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonist boarded the ship and threw it overboard into the Boston Harbor.

Many of the colonist in Massachusetts objected the Tea Act for many reasons. The most important reason is they believed that it violated their right as citizens to be taxed only by their own representatives.

One man in particular is Governor Thomas Hutchinson. This man refused the allow the tea to be returned to Britain. He didn't realize that the colonist would be so outraged that they would throw the tea overboard. The Main importance of the Tea Party was the growth in the American Revolution.

Parliament then responded to another act called the Coercive Act or Intolerable Act. This act describes the laws passed by British Government. After one act over another, the crisis escalated to the American Revolutionary War which began in 1773.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

Lauren Bray

The Nightwatch by Rembrandt

2009-09-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

During the Baroque era in 1642 artist usually painted what others wanted and not what the artist wanted. For artist to make a living they relied on the patrons. Because of the price, usually groups of patrons would get together and have their portrait done. Each person wanted the same amount of hierarchy. This would give the artist constraints, but if they wanted to get paid they had to give each figure the same amount of importance.

On the other-hand, Rembrandt was an exception. He didn't have to paint to keep his economical way-of-life because he married into a high-class lifestyle and would receive allowance from his in-laws. So he decides to be different. This Dutch (Protestant) painting of "Night Watch" by Rembrandt depicts a parade. This was paid upfront and in full. Those who didn't have as much hierarchy would complain. Therefore, the amount of commissions would decrease.

This selfishness caught up with Rembrandt. Later in life his wife passes away and receives less allowance. He needs to find more commissions. He eventually appears broke and lost with aging skin in one of his self portraits.

Published by: RYAN STILES

:)

2009-09-02T13:51:00.001-07:00